Centennial College, Downsview Campus Centre for Aerospace and Aviation
Toronto, Ontario
In Collaboration with Stantec
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Engine Labs, Electrical Labs, Avionics Labs, Sheet Metal Labs, CNC Rooms, Composites Labs and Clean Room, Classrooms, Study Rooms, Multipurpose and Meeting Rooms, Aircraft Compound, Hangar Run-Up Station, Aircraft Apron / Yard, Outdoor Heritage Interpretive Exhibit, Campus Courtyard
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Heritage: ERA Architects
Structural: Blackwell
Mechanical / Electrical: Crossey
Civil / Landscape: Stantec -
2023 Society for College & University Planning (SCUP) Excellence Award: Building Additions, Renovation or Adaptive Reuse
2022 Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award: Excellence in Conservation
2022 Graphic Design USA (GDUSA): Design Award
2022 Ontario Association of Architects (OAA): Design Excellence Award
2022 Azure Magazine: AZ People’s Choice Award (Experiential Graphic Design)
2021 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Canada: Award of Merit
2021 Toronto Urban Design Awards: Award of Excellence (Large Places and/or Neighbourhood Designs)
2021 National Trust for Canada: Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Award (Transformative Projects)
2021 Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) Heritage Award: Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse (Large-Scale / Team / Corporate)
2021 Heritage Toronto: Built Heritage Award (Adaptive Reuse)
2020 Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD) Global Design Award: Merit Award
This adaptive reuse project contributes to the development of a world-class aviation educational and manufacturing hub in Toronto’s Downsview Park, while rehabilitating and honouring one of the most remarkable sites in Canadian aviation history. It transforms a former production plant that was once the centre of aircraft manufacturing and design in Canada into an innovative learning institution for Centennial College’s Aviation and Engineering Technology programs.
Program spaces have been curated into new additions within the existing heritage structure, allowing the historical characteristics of the building to be revealed and affect program placement. These spaces offer a range of privacy, openness, and social interaction that are combined to enrich the student experience. The design also optimizes views into the new hangar and teaching space to excite interest in the college’s program offerings. A comprehensive exterior and interior experiential graphics program highlights the site’s special features, celebrating and bringing to life for students and the public the ongoing history of Canadian aviation.
DCCAA is located within Downsview Park, north of Toronto’s Downsview Airport. The site has deep historical significance, having once been Canada’s epicentre of aviation design and production. De Havilland Aircraft first located here in 1929, and the surrounding area was appropriated in 1954 for a Canadian Forces Base. In 1999, the 240-hectare Downsview Park was designated Canada’s first urban national park.
With a new landscaped courtyard alongside the main transit, pedestrian, and bike access route, on Carl Hall Road, the design transforms an industrial site with highly limited public realm space into an inviting and accessible destination.
In renovating the existing structure, the challenge was not so much to reconfigure a variety of new spaces as to connect and reuse existing ones in rational ways. The design rescaled the spaces of the old building to suit the new programming, and their materiality was highlighted to reveal the site’s evolving uses.
Copious natural daylighting throughout the interior not only enhances the new spaces but is a historic carryover from the existing industrial building’s skylights and clerestory windows.
MJMA’s Experiential Graphics overlay completes the experience of the building – weaving its history into its new identity and the daily life of the school.
